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progreav'of the Roman arms in Sp»in, j^akg of ^ iMN-
whicli Decimus Brutas beheld, for the firtt tiBMt|.t1ltt«Wli.<li
into the broad Atlantic, and itg fires bbfUmut* q[iMMH^^ mbl
illimitable western ocean. The Boman lea^ y/pftkil^ ftlfki$^ ^^n
been still more impressed with the solemnitgr of ^6^t<9tti> bacNjU
thought it possible that beneath those w«f«i tlklfUlt li|: f<bi
world, that a great island wiih all its tenvji
in* its depths, and that a civilization, oldf
or the wisdom of Etruria, had found amid |ii^p^|g|j||HMnw^
a grave. He might have philosophized nii
tain tenure of all human greatness, on the oyi

splendor whose very sepulchres had perished,' i

destiny of a commonwealth so utterly destroyed as to letTe to

ages its very existence a matter of debatable inquiry.

From all time (he finger of tradition has pointed to the W<|
the peculiar abode df a happier and more favored ie6e<
gardens of the Hesperides, the islands of the Blest, the boarne of
the Atlantides, the Western Ethiopians, the Atlantis of Plato,
these are legends familiar to all. Not only has Euripides, in one
of the choral songs of his Ilippolytus, celebrated the happy isles
where the winds blow ever softly, and the ambrosial streams flow*,
fast by the palaces of Jove ; but Pindar himself, whose birth prO"
ceded that of Herodotus by nearly a century, speaks in hi9|||0OBd .
Olympiac of the island of the Blest — for with him thete is but one
island — fanned by ocean breezes and adorned by evei^y jmeMing-of
fruit and flower. ThuS; also, a modern poet, Tenny|Q|, in tlMi40

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4 THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS,

fine linA of the Morte d' Arthur, suggested possibly by a well
known passage in the fourth Odyssey, sings of

" The island-valloy of Avilion,
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
I Nor ever wind blows loudly, but it lies

Deep meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns
And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea,"

Even beyond the limits of classic story, everywhere and always, .
has this oldest of legends held an abiding place in the hearts and
memories of all men. Still do the inhabitants of the Arran isl^,
on the edge of the great western main, -believe that from, time to
time they see the shores of a happy island rise above the waves.
Still, in the time of Marco Polo, a similar tradition prevaile4 among
the Cinghalese. The sagas of the North yet speak of the island
of Atle : and even the Japanese Ainos of the farthest East
retain the memory of a time when there was no land but islands,
and when the first of the race, after drifting long on the ocean,
landed at one of these, and lived in a garden of delights for many
years. Nor is this all ; these western seats were claimed as the
well-spring and fountain-head of intellectual culture. Doubtless
much of what we call mythic fable is but symbolism or allegory,
divine influences clad in anthropomorphic robes, or pliilosophic
sequence ^ivcn in the form 6f narrative. But sharply and clearly
from the iflists of mythos and legend stands forth the story of
Atlantis. Its pragmatic truthfulness is evinced by the choice of
Solon, who selected it as the gtibject of an epopee, as well as by
the solemnity and earnestness with which the story is brought for-
ward by Plato as an ancient and family heir-loom. Even so grave
a writer as Strabo, is of opinion that what Plato roh«tcs of the
Atlantis is no mere invention : and the priests of Sals themselves
confessed that the antiquity of Egypt paled before that of the
Atlantids, who invaded Egypt in arms and sowed the seeds of its
earliest cultivation. Atlantis was the daughter of Atlas. But
Atlas had also a daughter named Merope, whence the " meropes,"
or speaking men, looking on language or articulate speech as the

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THE LOST ISLAND OP ATLANTIS.

well

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£^D aud token of civilized humanity. Mercury himself, the god
\ ,^|df ibloquence and persuasion, appears in the theogony of old Bome
VliS tlie grandson of Atlas. With Ovid he is '^ Atlantiades/' «ii4

$:« Atlantis Plcionesque nepos" : so also Horace, as witntiB bis oda

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Merouri, facunde nepoa Atlantis

Qui feros cultus hominum recontum

Voce formasti catus ; — -- ^

Compare also in this connection "ko^Q^ with X^yw. ** |ii;>
beginning was the Word." Thus also Dante, ♦' non ragioniUEft
lor/' and Hamlet speaks df the '< brute that wants disoounM j^v
reason." Circe appears in the Odyssey as oetvv) Oeioc^ a Mii|tpr
divinity, but with the special attribute aO^Yiewa, or gifted iK^-^-
iirticulatc speech. Our word " dumb" is the analogue of the Teutoi^. (
" dumm/' which signifies witless : and in the same spirit the Sclav6S
superciliously denote their G'ermau neighbours by a term signify-
ing " voiceless," or without words. A similar meaning is attached
to the Greek vyiTCio;, whose analysis presents the same resul
Later writers place the Meropes on the Nile, but the old home
the Atlautids was the Atlas llange in Western Africa. Even
Pliny's time they had not advanced farther eastward- than Lib

The story of Atlantis appears, in the Timaous of J^Uto, in
following shape : — > .. < .

Listen now then, Socrates, to a story very strange Indeed, yet in every
I'fispect true, as it was once related, by Solon, the wisest of the seven
sa^es. He was the kinsman and intimate friend of our great grandfather
Dropidos as he himself often tells us in his poems : and he informed our
grandfather Critias, as the old man himself in turn told us, that this
state (Athens) had formerly achieved great and admirable actions, the
knowledii;e of which had nevertheless been lost through lapse of time aOd
the decay of mankind — one act in particular being more illustrious t)ian
the rest — in rcmembranco of which it were fitting that we should not only
return you thanks, but also in full assembly hymn forth to the zod^^ai;
our true and just acclaim of praise. * * * -jIlR ;

I will acquaint you with that ancient story which I indeed received froni
no mere youth; for at that time Critias, as he hioiaelf said,M.wa8 almoit
ninety years old, and I myself about ten.

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THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

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In Egypt, said he, in the Delta, about the summit of which the streams
of the Nile are divided, is the district (vou.o;) surnaraed Saitic ; the chief
city of which is Sais, whence also came the king Amasis ; and it had a
presiding divinity, whose name is in the Egyptian tongue Neith, which
they say corresponds with the Greek Athena ; and the people profeps to
be great friends of the Athenians, and united with them in a soil of close
alliance. Solon said that on his arrival thither, he was very honorably ^
received, and especially, on his inquiring about ancient affairs of those '
priests who possessed superior knowledge in such matters, he perceived
that neither himself nor any one of the Greeks (so to speak) had any an-
tiquarian knowledge at all. And once on a time desirous of inducing
them to narrate their ancient stories, he undertook to describe those events
which had foraierly happened among us in days of yore — those about the
first Phoroneus and Niol)e ; and again after the deluge of Deucalion and
Pyrrha, how they survived together with their posterity, paying due atten-
tion to the different ages in which these events are said to have occurred :
— on which one of their extremely ancient priests exclaimed . " Solon,
you Greeks are always children, and aged Greek there is none." * * •
You are all youths in intelligence ;^for you hold no ancient opinions
derived from remote tradition, nor any system of discipline tfcat can boast
of a hoary old age : and ^he cause of this, is the multitude and variety of
destructions that have been and will be undergone by the human race, the
greater indeed arising from fire and watei", others of less importance from
ten thousand other contmgencies. • ♦ * * The truth is, however,
that in all places where there is neither intense cold nor immoderate heat,
the race of man is always found to exist, sometimes in less, sometimes in
greater number. And all the noble, great or otherwise distinguished
achievements, perforrred either by ourselves, or by you, or elsewhere, of
which we have heard the report — all these have beon engraven in our
temples in very remote times, and preserved to the present dny ; while on
the contrary, with you and all other nations, they are only just committed
to writing, and all other modes of transmission which states rec^uire —
when again, at the usual period, a current^ from heaven rushes on them
like a pestilence, and leaves the survivors among you both destitute of
literary attainments and unacquainted with music ; — and thus you become
young again, as at lirst, knowing nothing of the events of ancient times,
either in our country or yours. As to the things, Solon, which you have
just related from your antiquities, they differ indeed but little from puerile
fables — for in the first place you mention only one deluge of the earth,
whereas there had been many before; and in the next place you are un-
acquainted with that most noble and excellent race of men who once
inhabited your country, from whom you and your whole present state are
descended, though only a small remnant of this admirable people is now
remaining — your ignorance in this matter resulting from the fact that
their posterity for many generations died without speaking to posterjty by
writing ; for long before the chief deluge, a city of Athenians existed,
regulated by the best laws, both in military and all other matters, whose,
noble deeds and civil institutions arc said to have been the most excellent
of all that we have heard to exist under heaven.

Many and mighty deeds of ycur state, then, are here recorded in writing
(in our sacred records), and call forth our admiration ; nevertheless there

MAQiWTii. t -''('•^^Nltl'Ul

THE LOST ISLAND OP ATLANTIS.

streams
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is oue in particular, which in magnitude and valour surpasses them all ;
for these writings relate what a prodigious force your city once overcame,
when a mighty warlike power, rushing from the Atlantic sea, spread itself
with hostile fury over all Europe and Asia. That sea indeed was then
navigable, and had an island fronting' that mouth which you in your tongue
cull 1 he pillars of Hercules; and this island was larger than Libya and
Asia put together ; and there was a passage hence for travellers of that
day to the rest of the islands, as well as from those islands to the whole
opposite continent which surrounds that, the real sea. ^or as respects
what is within the mouth here mentioned, it appears to be a bay with a
kind of narrow entrance ; and that sea is indeed a true sea, and the land
that entirely surrounds it may truly and most correctly be called a conti-
nent. In this Atlantic island, then, was formed a powerful league of
kings, who subdued the entire island, together with many others, and
parts also of the continent ; besides which they subjected to their rule the
inland parts of Lybia, as far as Egypt, and Europe also, as far as Tyrrhe-
nia. The whole of this force, then, being collected in a powerful league,
undertook at one blow to enslave both your country and ours, and all the
land besides that lies within the mouth. This was the period, Solon,
when the power of your state was universally celebrated for its virtue and
strength ; — for, surpassing all others both in magnanimity and military
skill, sometimes taking the lead of the Greek nation, at others, left to
itself by the defection of the rest, and brought into the most extreme
danger, it still prevailed, raised the trophy over its assailants, kept from
slavery those not as yet enslaved, ensured likewise the most ample liberty
for all of us without exception who dwell within the pillars of Hercules.
Subse«|uently, however, through violent earthquakes and deluges which
brought desolation in a single day and night, the whole of your warlike
rate was at once merged under the earth ; and the Atlantic island itself
was i)lunged beneath the sea, and entirely disappeared ; — whence even
now that sea is neither navigable nor to be traced out, being blocked up
by the great depth of mud which the subsiding island produced.

The above, 0 Socrates, is the sum of what the elder Critias repeated
from the narration of Solon. ■

Thus far the Timaeus. lu the Critias, Plato enters upon a more
minute description of the island. The speaker here is a Greek :
in the Timaeus it was an Egyptian. It is Critias himself who thus
discourses:

>-^i»>

I

First of all, then, let us recollect that it is about nine thousand years
smce war was proclaimed between those dwelling outside the pillars of
Hercules and all those within them — which war we must now describe.'
Orthe latter party then, this city was the leader and conducted the whole
war; and of the former the kings of the Atlantic island, which we said
was once larger tlian Libya and Asia, but now, sunk by earthquakes, a
mass of impervious mud, which hinders all those sailing on the vast sea
from cQecting a passage hither :

« * ' * * ii

As we remarked at first concerning the allotment of the gods, that they

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THE LOST ISLAND OP ATLANTIS.

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distributed the whole earth here into larger, and there into smaller por-
tions, procuring for themselves temples and public sacrifices — so Poseidon
in particular, taking as his lot the Atlantic island, begat children by a
mortal woman, and settled in some such spot of the island, as we are about
to describe. Towards the sea, but in the centre of the whole island, was
a plain, which is said to have been the fairest of all plains, and distin-
guished for the excellence of its soil. Near this plain, and at its centre,
about fifty stadia distant, was a mountain with short acclivities. On this,
dwelt one of these men who in primitive times sprang from the earth, by
name Evenor, who lived with a wife, Leucippe ; and they had an only
daughter, Clito. Now, when this girl arrived at marriageable age, and
her father and mother were dead, Poseidon becoming enamoured made
her his mistress and circularly enclosed the hill on which she dwelt, form-
ing the sea and larid into alternate zones, greater and less, turning as it
were two out of land and three out of sea, from the centre of the island,
all equally distant, so as to be inaccessible to men ; for at that time ships
and navigation were not known. And he himself with his divine power
j\greeably adorned the centre of the island, causing two fountains of water
to shoot upwards from beneath the earth, one cold and the other hot, and
making every variety of food to spring abundantly from the earth. He
also begat and brought up five twiirmale children ; and after distributing
all the Atlantic island into ten parts, he bestowed on the first-born of the
eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the allotment about it — this being
the largest and best; and he appointed him king of all the rest, making
the others governors, and giving to each the, dominion over many people
and an extensive territory. He likewise gave all of them names — to the
eldest, who was the king, the name of Atlas, from whom, as the first
sovereign, both the island and sea were termed Atlantic ; and to the twin
bom after him, who had received for. his share the extreme parts of the
island towards the pillars of Hercules, as far as the region which now in
that country is called Gadeirica, he gave the name which in Greek is
called Eumelus," but in the language of that country Gadeirus.

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All Ihese Ihed and their descendants dwelt for many generations, as
rulers in the sea of islands, and as we before said, yet further extended
their empire to all the country as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia. By far
the most distinguished however was the race of Atlas ; and among these
the oldest kin^g in succession, always handed down the power to his eldest

- son.

Many possessions indeed accrued to them, through their power, from
foreign countries ; but the greatest part of what they stood in need was
provided for them by the island itself — first, such ores as are dug out of
mines in a solid state, or require smelting ; — and especially that metal
' orichalcum' which is now known only by name, but formerly of high
celebrity, was dug out of the earth in many parts ot the island, being
considered the most valuable of all the meta!s then known, except gold:
and it produced an abundance of wood for builders, and furnished food
also for tanle and wild animals. Moreover, there were comprised within
it vast numbers of elephants: — for there were abundant means of support
for all animals that feed in marshes and lakes, on mountains and plains,
and so likewise for this animal, which by nature is the largest and most

V- »~..JS,

THE LOST ISLAND OF A1LANTX8.

9

the whole region.

in erectin;,^ tomples, royal habitations, ports and docks over

Toracioas of all. Besides these, whatever odorous plants -the earth
now bears, whether roots or grass, or woods or distilling ganu, or flowers
or fruits — these it bore and produced them to perfection. And yet, further
it bore cultivated fruits, and dry edible fruits such as we use for food ; — all
these kinds of food we call vonretables— to;TCther with all that trees bear, as
drinks, meats, and ointinonts ; atid those a>iao,"whose fruits, such as acorns,
being used in sport and pleasuio, are with difficulty hoarded up, together
with certain dainty fruits fur dessert that might provoke the satiated palate,
or please the sick ; — all these that onde existing and warmly acclimated
island bore, sacred, beautiful, wonderfhl, and infinite in quamity. Re-
ceiving all these, then, from the earth, the inhabitants employed them
selves also

• " .#t''

The temple of Poseidon himself was a stadium in length, thtee plethra
in breadth, and of a height to correspond, having something of a barbaric
appearance. All the outside of the temple, except the pinnacles, the^^
lined with silver, but the pinnacles with gold :— and as to the interior, the
roof was formed wholly of ivory variegated with gold and orichalcura.
They also placed in it golden statues, the god himself being represented as
standing on a chariot holding the reins of six winged horses, ot suQ'k a
size as to touch the roof with his head, and round him a hundred nerei^
on dolphins; * * and it contained also many other statues dedicated to
private individuals. Round the outside of the temple likewise golden
images were placed of all the men and women that were descended from
the ton kings, and many other large statues, both of kings find private
people, both from the city itself, and the foreign countries over which
they had dominion. There was an altar too, of corresponding size and
Avorkmanship with these ornaments ; and the excellence of the palace was
proportioned to the magnitude of the government and also to the order
observed in the sacred ceremonies.

Next, they used foimtains both from the cold and hot springs, of which
there was a great abundance, either of which was wonderfully well adapted
for use from its sweetness and excellence ; and round them they fixed
their habitations and excellently watered plantations, together with their
water tanks, some open to the heaven, but other for winter use roofed over
for warm baths. . r . '

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On crossing the three exterior harbours, one was met by a wall which
went completely round, * * and enclosed in one the entrance to the
canal and the entrance to the sea; The whole of this part indeed was
covered with many and densely-crowded dwellings ; — and the canal and
largest harbour were full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts,
causing from their multitude all kinds of shouting, tumult, and din all day
long and the night through.

The whole region was said to be exceedingly lofty and precipitous
towards the sea ; and the plain about the city, which encircles it, is itself
surrounded by mountains slopuig down to the sea, being level and smooth,
all much extended, three thousand stadia in one direction, and the central
part from the sea above two thousand. And this district of the whole
island was turned towards the South : * * The mountains around it too

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10

THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

were at that time celebrated, as exceeding in number, size and beauty all
those of the present time — having in them many hamlets enriched with
villages, as well as rivers, lakes and marshes, furnishing ample supplies of
food for all cattle both tame and wild, with timber of various descriptions,
and in abundant quantity for every individual purpose. The plain then
being thus by nature, was improved as folioirs by many kings in a long
course of time. It was of square shape mostly straight and oblong ; and
where it ended, they bounded it by a trench dag round it, the depth,
breadth and length of which, for a work of man's making, besides the
other connected undertakings, we can scarcely believe, though still we
must report that we heard. It was excavated to the depth of a plethrum,
and the breadth was a stadium in every part, the whole excavation round
the plain being ten thousand stadia in length. This receiving the streams
coming down from the mountains, and conducted all round the plain,
approached the city in some parts and in this way was allowed to flow out
to the bay. From above, likewise, straight canals were cut about a
hundred feet broad along the plain, back into the ditch near the sea,
distant from another about one hundred stadia: — and it was by this that
they brought down the timber from the mountains to the city, and carried
on the rest of their shipping traflBc, cutting transverse canals of commu-
nication into each other and towards the city. Theii- harvest also they
gathered twice in the year ; in winter availing themselves of the rains,
and in summer introducing on the land the streams from the trenches.

As to the quantity of land, it was ordered, that of the men on the plais
fit for service, each individual leader should he ve his allotment, each allot-
ment amounting in extent to a hundred stadia, and the total of the lots
being sixty thousand ; and of those from the mountains and the rest of the
country there was said to be an incalculable number of men, to all of
whom, according to their dwelling and villages, wore assigned certain lots
by their respective leaders. To each leader, likewise, the task was ap-
pointed of furnishing' for war the sixth portion of a war chariot (to make
up a total of ten thousand), two riding horses, and a two-horse car without
a driver's seat, having a mounted charioteer to direct the horses, with
another to dismount and fight at the side — also two heavy-arraud soldiers,
two archers, two slingers, throe each of light-armed men, stone-shooters,
and javelin-men, with four saihMs to make up a complement of one thou-
sand two hundred ships. Thus wore the military affairs of this city
arranged. And as respects the nine others, there were diffi-rent other
arrangements, which it would be tedious to nai'rate.

And as respects olllcial situations and honors, the following were the
arrangements made from the conimiMicement : — Of the ton kings, each
individually in his own district and over his own city ruled supreme over
the people and the laws, constraining and punishing whomsoever ho
pleased: and the government and commonwealth in each was regulated
by the injunctions of Poseidon, as tLe law handed them down : and in-
scriptions were made by the first kings on a column of orichalcum, which
was deposited in the centre of the island in the temple cf Poseidon, where
they assembled every fifth year (which they afterwards changed to every
sixth year), taking an ct^ual j)art both for the entire state and its supernu-
meraries ; and thus collected they consulted concerning the common weal
and inquired what trangression'^ each had committed, judging them accord-
ingly. • * ♦ ♦

Such then and so great being the power at that time in these places,

I

i

I

the
pretej
sufficfl
towail

THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

11

beauty all
iched with

supplies of
ascriptions,
plain then

in a long

ongj and
the depth,
esides the
h still we
plethrum,
iion round
le streams
the plain,
0 flow out

about a
[" the sea,

■ this that
id carried

■ commu-
also they
the rains,
iches.
the plain

ach allot-
' the lots
3st of the
to all of
'tain lots

was ap-
!to make

without
es, with
soldiers,
liooters,
ue thou-
!iis city
t other

cro the
s, eacli
10 over
vcr ho
fulated
md iii-
wh it'll
whore
every
pernii-
n wen!
ccord-

laces,

m

the Deity transferred it these regions, as report goes, on the following
pretexts : — For many generations, as long as the natural power of the god
sufficed them, they remained obedient to the laws and kindly affected

towards the divine nature to which they were allied.

♦ » ♦ • j(. «

But when the divine portion within them became extinct through much
and frequent admixture of the mortal nature, and the manners of men
began to hold sway, then through inability to bear present events, they
began to exhibit unbecoming conduct and to the intelligent beholder
appeared base, destroying the fairest among their most valuable posses-
sions. * * Zeus, however, the god of gods, who rules according to the
laws, and is able to see into such things, perceiving an honorable race in a
condition of wretchedness, and wishing to inflict punishment on them that
they might become more diligent in the practice of temperance, collected
all the gods into their own most ancient habitation, which indeed being
situate in the centre of the whole world beholds all things * * and
having assembled them, he said, * * * .

Thus abruptly ends the Critias. If completed, the termination
has been lost. The extracts from this dialogue and from the Ti-
rniieus will sufficiently show the form which the mythus had then
assumed.*

Such is the narrative which has served as a text for the learned
labours of Bailly, Rudbeck, Kireher, Beckman, Buffon, White-
hurst and others. It might seem superfluous to revive the discus-
siou of this vexata quxstio, already handled by writers of acknow-
ledged eminence. But the ever-widening circle of human knowledge
permits to all to supplement, or illustrate, however imperfectly, the
speculations of those who have gone before ; and the recent inves-
tigations in relation to the Basques and their language, the deep-
sea soundings of the Atlantic, and the amber-fauna of central Europe,
seemed to present in this connection some points of interest worthy
of consideration.

The island of which Plato discoursed and Pindar sang, has indeed,
long since passed away, and its memory has become enshrouded in
the mists of poetry and fable. The very echoes of its story have
well nigh died into silence. Scarcely can we realize the remoteness
of its existence. The scale of our own chronology shrinks to a
point J and the effort to scan with any certainty the secrets of that

'* In theso extraotH tho translation of Davia, based on tho text of Stallbaum,
has been gonorally followed. Comparo also I)iodor, Sic. ill. 207, and Amm.
Maroell. i. 17.

H'

'-"?>,'

m

{*^t

M

.>■

12

THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

111!
I;

abyss of time seems, in its futile presumption, alike profitless and
vain.

Yet, if traces are anywhere left of the sacred isle and its tenants,
it would appear reasonable to expect them on the borders of the
North Atlantic, on the edge of that sei. of marvels and mysteries
(still called by the Arabs " the sea of darkness"), whose surges
once broke upon their shores.

There yet remains, on the Eastern strand of the Atlantic, a people
isolated from all others, standing ethnologically alone, and having
no affinity with the existing families of nations; strange and soli-
tary as some old-world denizen of the Saurian age that had lived on
through many geological cycles, outliving its fellows and congeners,
to confront at last the widely dissimilar types of contemporary
being. Such is the Euakarlan people, the Escaldunac or Basques,
the lineal descendants of the ancient Iberians, who, in their turn,
standing similarly apart from the res^of Europe, and possessing a
literature which was already old in the days of Strabo, seem to
represent some more ancient stock, whoso existence stretches far
back into the grey dawn of time.

The ethnologic isolation of the Basques rests mainly on linguistic
grounds. Their language, the Euskara, differs widely from all
others both in structure and vocabulary. Attempts have been
made to connect it with the Hungarian or Madjari, with the less
conspicuous Ugrian dialects of the Baltic, with the agglutinative
tongues of central Asia, and even with the surrounding romance
languages or daughters of the old Latin, but alike in vain. Like
the mutable genie of the Arab tale, it eludes at every turn the
grasp that would retain it. It remains an unsolvable enigma, a
perpetual puzzle, a j)/(Jcc dc resistance for laborious continental
professors. Elsewhere and with other tongues there is influence
and interchange, connection and derivation j this one alone rises
unconformably amidst them nil like the product of an earlier form-
ation or the mountain-peak of a drowned world.

There are many things which suggest its great antiquity as a
language. The pronouns, which elsewhere are for the most part

f

■■>

-.. ^0^ - ^K'

THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

18

•:*

irregular in declension; are here regular throughout. In all that
great family of languages which has been called the Indo-European,
as comprising the European congeners of the Sanscrit, the pronom-
inal inflections have a broken and disjointed aspect, as if mado up
of the fragments of earlier and dissimilar forms. Thus the class-
ical ego is as different from the genitive met as is the Russo-Scla-
vonicja from its possessive menja. Something of an analogy is
presented to the conglomerates and breccias of the geologist, the
cemented gravels and shell-mosaics, made up of portions of older
rocks. Again, the peculiar phonesis of the Euskara points to a
remote era ; its mute consonants being hard and pure, unlike the
aspirate and sibilant phonesis ]of later growths. It delights in K,
T, and P sounds, and in its vocalization the pure sounds A, I, and
U, are largely predominant. Farther, as might be expected in a
language that has come down to us from primeval times, the few
lexical affinities which can be traced are shared among widely
dissimilar tongues now lying far apart on the earth's surface. A
few of its words are Coptic. Rask saw a likeness to the Finnish.
William von Humboldt traced a resemblance to Attic Greek. Old
in years, its vitality, as well as the extent of its original area, must
have been groat, to enable it to resist influences which would have
been fatal to a dialect less old, less widely spoken, or less firmly
implanted. During the entire middle ages it was never a written
language. Less deeply rooted, it would have disappeared altogether.
Receding everywhere, it still lives. Within the last thirty years it
has lost eight leagues of territory in Spanish Navarre alone. Yet it
still endures, an ancient oak with little but the stem remaining. The
old forms are still preserved. Among these are some which seem
analogous to thoSo of Eastern laniis, to the Kharma-dharaya com-
pounds of the Sanscrit, where two words, a noun and its attribute for
instance, are so closely united that the latter only is subject to change
or inflection, the former rcrauiniug in its crude form, and both
together being fused into one inseparable compound. In the Sans-
crit, this fusing together of words is carried to a startling extent,
particularly ia the class of descriptives or cpithotics known as Ba-

mf

' *

14

THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

i3

bJ

It '

nr

huvrihi compounds. Thus in speaking of a certain river an epi-
thet is applied to it consisting of one compound word, which word
signifies, " Whose waters were sanctified by the bathing of the
daughter of Jaoaka."

Again, the Euskarian radices or roots themselves are of a con-
fessedly antique type : — monosyllabic, a(irial, untranslateable in
themselves, fulfilling no specific grammatical function, but convey-
ing the central abstract idea, whence, as from a vitalizing germ,
radiate the forms of all inflectional and conjugational bases. It
is scarce necessary to revert to the fact that all language has three
determinate stages : first, the monosyllabic, represented by the
Chinese, where, as Bunsen has expressed it, " every word is a
magnetised mineral, forming itself without any outward change
into polarity (the nominal and the verbal pole), and thus having
for its centre, as the indifferential point between the two, the ad-
jective participle quality. Position ■ assisted by accent elicits the
polarity required or reduces the word to its indiflferential point.
The Chinese expresses ' daylight ' by two words signifying in
exactly the same order djly-light: but he cannot condescend to
subordinate the second to the first by saying, with one accent, day-
light. If he could, the spell of monosyllabism would be broken."
The slowness of mutation here approaches that of the great cos-
mical changes of the universe. It is only after a literature of four
thousand years, that some of these unchangeable Chinese roots arc
beginning to be used as signs of grammatical relations. In the
second or agglutinative stage something of a chrystallization ha .
taken place among these isolated centres of thought, and polysyl-
labic words have been formed, the tone-syllable constituting the
axis, as it were, around which the others are builtup,tbuf forming
one organism out of many syllables. In the final or inflectional
stage, comprising the Semitic and Aryan groups, the material and
formativft parts of a word are fused together so intimately as to bo
not always distinguishable, Speaking in general terms, the second
division maybe said to be represented by the great Turanian family
of languages, holding the main laud of the groat A siatio conti-

THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

15

T an epi-
iich word
ig of the

of a con-
teable in
convey-
S germ,
ises. It
las three
by the

ord is a
QhaD!>:e
having
the ad-
cits the

1 point.

nng in

end to

it, day-

3ken."

at cos-

)ffour

is arc

n the

0 ha ,

'ysyl-

: the

ning

ional

and

0 bo

ond

riiJy

Qti-

.^s^-

nent; while the peninsulas of Europe and India are Aryan, and
that of Arabia is Semitic. The first or isolatlag class, with its
many centres of life, and its polype like diffused vitality, may be
not inaptly compared to tlio lafliaf* division of the animal world,
while the Articulata may afford an analogue to the Turanian class,
where syllable is agglutinated to syllable by an almost vegetative
process of development.

At the head of the sporadic Turanian dialects of Europe has
been provisionally placed the Euskarian or Basque. But the Tu-
raniauism of the Basque differs widely from that of its supposed
nearest congeners, the Finnish and Hungarian. These latter have
a peculiar euphonic system, in virtue of which hard and soft vowels
cannot stand together in the same word; and when a vocalized
aflix is added to a steui-word having a vowel or vowels of an oppo-
site class, a species of " umlaut" takes place, and the vowel of the
affix is conformed to the vocalization of the stem-word. The same
principle appears abundantly elsewhere, as, e.g., in the plural of
Icelandic verbs and nouns, and throughout the Ivlaeso-Gothic of
Ulphilas. Nothing of this kind is to be found in the Basque,
either in the modern improvisations of the Escaldunac peasant, or
in those venerable war-songs which, bridging the gulf of many
centuries, relate the struggles of their ancestors, the " indomlti
Oantabri" of Horace, with the armed legionaries of Rome.

Nor is it altogether unworthy of observation, that there is, in
the character of the Basque literature, that which hints at the
effete civilization of a most ancient people. Literatures, like men,
grow old. Old in an irrepressible sadness, in something of bitter-
ness and sarcasm, in that keen appreciation of men and things
which is derived from commerce;, from crowded intercourse, from
long experience alone . The oldest utterance is lyrical : and from
the Vedaio hymns to the sentcntiousness of wordly-wise proverbs
is a transition from infancy to declining years. To revert from the
contortions and rose-tinted sentimentalism which stamp the anility
of a people to the Hciraskringla or the fresh sagas of the North, is
to exchange the unwholesome air of a theatre for the clear beauty

'f

16

THE LOST ISLAND OP ATLANTIS.

of the morning. Even below the throbbing life-pulse and muscular
vitality of Homer himself we detect a despondency not unnatural
in one who, receiving the last echoes of Lydian song, and wielding
a language already perfect with the growth of centuries, may be
said to stand at the close of a cycle rather than at the beginning.
Such in its main attributes is the literature of the Basques. Such
in particular is that of the Labourdan branch, as collected by
Francisque Michel : sententious, artistic, sombre in tone, and rich
in proverbs and apothegms of a most shrewd and practical wisdom.
Whence then did this people originate? Thus old, thus
diflFerent from all others, and cut off on the East by an impassable
chasm of unrelated dialects, whence did they come, or by what
path did they reach their present home ? May we believe that
they came from the West, from some insular, tract in the North
Atlantic ? Were there at first two opposing centres of civilization ?
And was the shock of their meeting dimly shadowed forth in the
story of the Timaeus f and commemorated by the panathenaic pro-
cession, wherein the peplus of the goddess depicted the defeat of
the Titans, and the people returned thanks for their preservation
from Western invaders r' The Saturnian dynasty opposed to that
of Jove, the war of the giants and the gods, Odin destroying Ymer
and his offspring, have these a historic basis ? Were it in our power
to look back from some Pisgah-hcight on the long march of those
who have preceded us, we might perhaps sec how successive races,
as waves of the sea, have swept over and renewed the face of the
civilized world. Could our vision penetrate the mists of the morning,
we might see how progress has alternated with retrogression, and
how each ebbing wave has left the depopulated earth to return to the
silence and desolation of its primeval forests. For decay is rapid
as growth, and the traces of civilization arc soon lost when the foot
of the civilizer is withdrawn. Tt was thus that in Italy during the
days of Beli.sarius and Narscs, in Franco under the early Valois,
and in ]5clgium— after the return of the Spanish provinces to the
sway of the second Philip, the farms and orchards and palatial
buildings, the busy roadways and all signs and tokens of conten*^^

and pi
placedl
broodf
Do
additi(|
there
Islandl
of Plal
Let
format
tiary i
Profes
The
which
States
ble thi
magni
ferum
also ii
of Ui
'< Pa\
shew
sideri
t are n

r'-'.^

THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

IT

d muscular
i unnatural
d wielding
es, may be
beginning,
es. Such
lected by
, and rich
1 wisdom.
old, thus
upassablc

by what
ieve that
lie North
lization ?
h in the
laic pro-
lefeat of
ervation
'. to that
g Ymer
ir power
)f those
e races,

of the
orniniT,
m, and

to the
I rapid
10 foot
3g the
^ilois,
;o the
ilatial
ntenf

and prosperity, disappeared altogether, in many districts, to be re-
placed by the dank vegetation of fen and forest, where the bittern
brooded and the wild beast made his lair.

Do these various mythi, then, all converging to one point, receive
additional confirmation from other and independent sources ? Are
there physical grounds to corroborate Strabo's opinion that the
Island of Atlantis had an actual existence, and that the narrative
of Plato is not all a dream ?

Let us advert for a moment to the fossil flora of the brown coal
formation of Grermany, and the Molasse of Switzerland, both ter-
tiary formations belonging to the Miocene age, as investigated by
Professor Unger of Vienna.

The professor remarks on the amazing number of analogues
which these fossils present to those of the flora of the Northern
States of America, and shews that many of these strikingly resem-
ble the trees and shrubs of the cis- Atlantic continent. Thus the
magnificent North-American Tulip-treo, the "Liriodendron tulipi-
ferum" of Linnaeus, finds a representative in the Swiss Molasse, as
also in Iceland, where both the leaves and fruit of the Liriodendron
of linger have been discovered. So the fruits and seeds of
" Pavia" and " Robinia," found here and there in the brown coal,
shew that these genera, now limited in America to a very incon-
siderable area, formerly lived and flourished in Europe, where they
are now looked on as exotics and, being introduced as such into
gardr3s.3j»€r;e again naturalized in their primal home. Again, the
nut is notoriously wanting in Europe : for the almost naturalized
wall-nut is from the forest ridges of the Southern Caucasus ; but
the nut-fruit is found most abundantly in the brown-coal, and
if these specimens be compared with the numerous American
species, the resemblance will be found most striking, in particular
if the so-called grey nut of America, the " Juglans cinerea " of
Linn«3us, be compared with the fossil " Juglans tephrodes " of
linger, it will be found difficult if not impossible to detect any
diftercucc.

It is remarkable too that while this connection exists with the

A: ■

18

THE LOST ISLAND OP ATLANTIS.

flora of the Western world, the plants of the neighboring Eastern
continent are very sparingly represented in Europe.

Besides the instances of close remembrance already given, the
professor has appended a lengthy list of other analogues, from which
the following are extracted : —

In the European tertiaries, the fossil Nyssa Ornithobroma agrees
with the American Nyssa aquatica.

The Taxodium dubium, with the Taxodium distichum ;

The Platanus aceroides, with the Platanus occidentalis j

The Ostrya Atlantidis, with the Ostrya Virginica ;

The Acer trilobatum, with the Acer rubrum and the Acer dasy-
carpum ;

The Cercis radobojana, with the Cercia Canadensis ;

The Laurus primigenia, with the Laurus Canariensis ;

The Rhododendron megiston (Ung.), with the Rhododendron
maximum (Lin.);

The Bumelia plejadum, with the Bumelia tenax ;

The genus Quercus~presents no less than eight fossil species, the
Tephrodes, Chlorophylla, Elaena, Myrtilloides, Apollinis, Drymeia,
Lonchitis, and Daphnes, which answer respectively to the species
Oinerea, Virens, Oleoides, Myrtifolia, Laurifolia, Xalapensis, Lanci-
folia, and Aquatica of the American continent. In the same way the
fossil prunus has two species, the ilex two, the rhus three, and the
pinus fourteen, all possessing exact analogues in Northern America.

Farther, Professor Heer's examination of the fossil plants of
the island of Madeira, shew the following parallelism with the
fossils of the European tertiaries j

In the tertiary Flora of Europe.

Woodwardia Rossneriana,
Pteris Gepperti,
Aspidium elongatum,
Cheilanthes Labarpii,
Myrica Salicina,
Persea Braunii,
Laurus princeps,
Olethr^ Tcutonica,
Olea Osiris,
Saliz varians,

Atlantic Flora of Madeira.

Woodwardia radicans,
Pteris arguta,
Aspidium affine,
Chilanthes fragrans,
Myrica Faya (Linn),
Persea Indica,
Laurus Canariensis,
Clethra alnifolia,
Olea excelsa,
Salix Canariensis.

f

Tl

great

Oi

I' t

m

THE LOST ISLi:^D OF ATLANTIS.

19

East

ern

iven, the
m which

iron

m

Thus an interesting link of connection is supplied to the two
great floras first considered.

On looking at the permanent character of the North American
vegetation which seems to have changed but little since llic Mo-
lasse period, whereas that of the Brown-coal has a charaoter of
exoticism and isolation, Professor linger is led to the opinion that
the '* Bildung-centrum" the creative centre of the latter is the
Southern part of the North American free States.

From this centre has America distributed to Europe its descen-
dant Robinia, its Amber and Tulip-trees, its nuts, its maples, and
so forth. As to the mode of transmission there are but two cases
possible. Either the winged and wingless seeds and scions have
been transported through the air, or by the ocean, to the Western
shores of Europe, or a bridge of connection then existed which
has been since destroyed. Ai to the air-travelling seeds, it is well
known that these, either from their winged type or by the inter-
vention of birds, frequently attain a considerable range of disper-
sion, but in no case a distance equal to the breadth of the Atlantic.
Travelling by water, it has been no uncommon thing for plants to
migrate from one continent to another. There are cosmopolites
which the gulf-stream has brought from the coast of Mexico to
Norway. It is to the ocean that the cocoa-nut palm owes its great
range of extension. Not only does it travel well, but when thrown
upon shoal or rock, if it find only a little poor white sand, which
would support nothing else, the cocoa-nut contents itself there,
finds brackish water not a jot less agreeable than the freshest,
germinates, thrives, grows into a robust cocoa-tree. A tree being
thus planted, fresh water comes, falling leaves create earth, other
trees follow, and at length we soo the noble palm-grove, which
arrests the vapors : these eventually form a rivulet or river, which
flowing from the centre of the isle make an opening of fresh water
in the cincture of white sand, and thus keep the polypes, inhabitants
only of salt water, at a respectful distance.''' Thus an island has
grown up amid the ocean.

* Miohelet " La Mer."
4

20

THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

But in reference to these modes of transmission it may be

observed that the plants so diffused arc few in number, and the

raa<;e of operation is for the most part limited. In fact how little

thi; s ';i is adiipted for a medium of transportation, has been shown

by the researches of Darwin, lieikley, Salter, and Alphonse de

Candolle. According to the latter, of ninety-eight species which

were submitted to the experiment, only nineteen retained the

faculty of germination after a six weeks' immersion in sea-water,

and after being immersed for throe months, all with the exception

of seven had either sunk, and so become incapable of further

migration or had lost the power of reproduction. But the richness

and variety of the Brown-coal and Molassc-flora are adverse fo the

supposition of any such mode of migration as those above indicated.

In that insular period when Europe itself existed only as a group

of islands, the outlines of the water-basins and arms of the sea

being indicated pretty accurately by the configuration of the

browu-coal deposits, and when the Eastern coast of the North

American States, judging from the deep-sea soundings, and the

wearing effect of the gulf-stream, extended in all probability much

farther eastward into the Atlantic ; if we look at the peculiar

vegetation of Madeira, and bear in mind the fossil plants of

Iceland, which though now bare and treeless, was then thickly

wooded with a flora analogous to that of the brown-coal, we

cannot doubt that some vast insular tract existed at this time in

the North Atlantic, extending probably from Iceland in the North

to Madeira in the South, and forming a bridge of connection

between the two worlds.

At a meeting of German Naturalists at Kocnigsberg, in 1861, a
lecture was delivered by Director Loow, on the Diptera of the
Amber-fauna. In this fauna the perfect preservation of even the
smaller and more delicate animal organisms allows of a minute
comparison with their existing analogues. After shewing their
agreement with various North American species, and expressing a
decided opinion that the existing intercourse between the two
continents is not sufficient to account for the large number of

THE LOST ISLAND OP ATLANTIS.

21

species common to both, the Director concludes,—" The European
and the American Dipterous-faunae always appear to me like two
branches of the same stock, each having had a development of its
own, very similar, however, to the development of the other. Hut
if there really was such a common stock for both, it is to be sought
among the Diptera of a former geological period, and if the
European and the North American Dipterous- fauna) are to bo
considered as branches of this stock, the necessary inference would
be that at a former period Europe and America had a continental
connection.

" Are the Amber-Diptera preserved fragments of this common
stock ? Did a continental connection between Europe and America
really exist at the time when they lived ? Did the submersion of
an Atlantis tear asunder the branches of this stock ? Was this
catastrophe accompanied by changes which modified the general
laws of development of the common stock in such a manner as to
produce a difference between the further development of the
stronger American branch, and of the weaker European one, a
difference not excluding at the same time a great deal of
analogy ?"

It is possible that, when investigations now going on are com-
pleted, a still stronger argument may be drawn from the European
and American Ilymenoptera, a iamily less capable of dispersion or
migration, and to which the sea would be an almost insuperable
barrier.

The operations of Dr. Maury, in the North Atlantic Ocean,
afford a remarkable confirmation of the hypothesis adduced. His
deep-sea soundings shew that a raised tract, suggestive of a sub-
merged island, which he calls the middle ground, lies midway in
the Atlantic basin, extending from the latitude of Cuba to beyond
Newtbundland, and having a breadth of from twenty to thirty
degrees of longitude. The soundings on this plateau, which is of
clay and sand, are from one thousand to eighteen hundred fathoms.
All round, immediately beyond its outline, the sea goes plumb
down another thousand fathoms, and beyond this lower terrace

V

22

TUB LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

there is another descent, where the Atlantic attains its greatest
depth of ahout five thousand fathoms.

Neither is it necessary, if the existence of such an island he
conceded, that the age of the human race be carried back to the
period of the miocene. The island, possibly, did not sink beneath
the waters before the close of the pleistocene or drift period. The
various terraces round the highest level plainly point to an area of
subsidence. There were sinkings at distant intervals, with long
ages of rest between. It was not probably till the end of the
pleiocene, that the island was reduced to its most limited extent,
and subsequently became the abode of man. The old legends,
retained by Plato, speak of terrible convulsions of nature, amid .
which Atlantis sank : can we suppose These narratives to retain a
far distant echo of the throes and disturbances which preceded the
modern geologic period ? Without doubt, if we review in thought
the many ages that must have rolled away since the period of the
pleistocene, it may appear startling to conceive of man as then
existing ; and to compute the duration of our species on earth by
thousands of centuries instead of the few thousand years usually
assigned to it ; but there are many considerations which would
incline to the belief that the antiquity of our race has been greatly
underrated. The whole tendency of contemporary scientific
inquiry sets in that direction : and year by year, as book after
book appears, and discovery after discovery is made, the genesis or
man recedes, and the date of his appearance seems farther and
farther withdrawn.

Worthy of note, too, is the great number of recorded changes
and convulsions of the earth's surface, too numerous and too con-
siderable to be comprised within the received historic period. Nor
are these pven as mere myths by authors little deserving of credit,
but as historic events handed down by tradition and placed on
record by writers not wholly devoid of critical acumen, as Strabo, .
Herodotus and others. Strong and indelible must have been the
memory of the disturbances, wherein the agencies of water-floods,
earthquakes, and subterraneous upheaving seem to have been altcr-

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THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

nately employed. It has been the parent of many myths, wherein
superhuman beings have been reproscnfod in deadly warfare. The
Samothracian priests had a tradition tha., the Pontus was originally
a closed crater, and that afterward.^, overflowin<(, it formed the
Hellespont as its outlet, and separated Europe from Africa. That
these two were at first one continent seems supported by the great
similarity of the floras on the northern and southern shores of the
Mediterranean. Crete is said to have formerly been part of the
mainland, and in no other way docs it seem possible to account for
the presence on its mountain peaks of the Capra Sinaica, whose
special habitat is between Sinai and Nubia. The island of Rhodes
arose from the sea, and was subsequently inundated. Cos and
Nisyrus, originally one, were rent asunder and formed two islands.
The valleys of the Thessalian Peneus, and the Laconian Eurotas
were dried up. Cyprus, Euboea, and Sicily, were violently
separated from the main land. Mountain tops were cast down, as
that of Taygetus. Earthquakes overthrew cities, as Sparta and
Sicyon, or covered them with the waves, as the Boeotian Arne and
Midea, and the Achaian Helice and Bura. Islands were torn
asunder, as Therasia and Thera, or wholly submerged, as Chryse,
near Lemnos. Capes, as Atalanta, were changed into islands, while
others again were thrown up from the depths of the sea, as Hiera
and Thia. Rivers were dried up, as the Boeotian Helius : or
volcanoes suddenly blazed forth, as on Lemnos, the Arcadian
Lycoeum, and Methone in Argolis. The changes of the Caspian
have given rise to the learned monograph of Kephalides, " de
Historia Maris Caspii," scarcely two ancient writers agreeing as
to its extent, form, or position, or as to the names, number and
course of the rivers which it receives. Nor are oriental authorities
wanting. The Chevalier Von NorofiF, in a treatise published at
Saint Petersburg, in 1854, has collected on this subject some
curious extracts from Arab writers of the tenth century. One of
these (Mas'udi; A.D., 943, 944), speaks of an old tradition that a
bridge formerly existed at the strait between Spain and xVfrica,
constructed of stones and bricks, over which passed camels and

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24

THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

beasts of burden. Uuder this bridgo flowed the ocean tide,
divided into small canals. The water of the Mediterranean, how-
ever, rose gradually, and in course of time submerged one tract
after another. Finally, the water flowed over the bridge, which,
however, could be seen below the surface, long after, by sea-faring
men. Another similar tradition, preserved by El-Biruni, is that,
in old time, a damp, brackish soil, covered with rank vegetation,
extended between Egypt and ConstantiuDple.

Neither, again, according to the ordinary chronology, would
there seem to be space enough for the evolution of all the multi-
tudinous mythi of antiquity. These mythi are the deposit of long-
ages of a people's history. It can be only after a great lapse of
time that the suspended matter of a my thus, be it historic, religio""
or physical, becomes at length precipitated, or rather slowly
deposited, and assumes a concrete and palpable form.

There may be those who think that the fossils, the' cave-relics,
and other signs and evidences of man's primeval occupancy, should
be yet more numerous to warrant any certain conclusion. To
these it may be replied that the ocean-bed is beyond the grasp of
the geologist, that scarcely a tenth of the whole dry land has been
surveyed, and of that tenth but a small par. belongs to the tertiary
or post-tertiary age.

^Aud what, indeed, can be more reasonable than to suppose that
when the earth was prepared for his reception, man should appear r*
In those primal azoic ages, when as yet the dry land was not, and
our planet rolled onward through the void, covered with a boiling
sea, and shrouded in vapours, so thut emphatically, " Darkness
was on the face of the deep," then, of course, his existence would
have been an impossibility. So, also, during the time when those
strange ganoids and placoids held their solitary sway ; or later,
when the dynasty of fishes was succeeded by thut of reptiles, and
the lias and oolite displayed their wondrous reptilian fauna. ]>ut
at the close of the secondary period, there was a pause, a pause of
expectancy. The crowning glory of creation, the centre of the
muto prophesying of innumerable ages, man, the latest born and

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25

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highest of terrestrial creatures, was about to appear. With the
tertiary a new order of things arises : it has been said that it
possesses scarcely a species in common with the preceding age, —
that two planets could hardly differ more in their natural produc-
tions ; and this break in tin: law of continuitv is the more remark-
able, as hitherto some of the newly-created animals were always
introduced before the older was extinguished. It was a "period of
rest and tranquility ; an exultant and abounding age. Creatures
of a high order, the largest of the laud mammalia, moved through
the luxuriant herbage, or enjoyed the shady coolness of the river-
side. And still, with the ever-widening dawn, the resemblance to
our own world increased. The stately ruminants of the forest — the
elk, the stag, and the bison appeared. The horse waited for his
rider, and the steer for the yoke of the husbandman : flowers, like
our own, enamelled a thousand fields, and the lark, as now, filling
the air with song, soared upward to the gates of heaven.

And thus, the conditions of vitality being there, it is difficult to
conceive of life itself being absent. Everything around us, the
blade of grass, the drop of dew, teems with living beings. Life is
enjoyed everywhere to the uttermost. There is no space lost.
And not only is life present, but life advanced to the farthest
degree of perfection which the supplied conditions will allow. The
elements being given, the organism is the unfailing product, and the
Promethean spark kindles at once into being. If human life then
was possible during this period, we may rest assured that human
life was there.

And they, the dwellers in their island-home, how lived they i*
What was their history ? May we believe with Plato, that they
became prosperous, rich, powerful, — were ruled by wise kings,
received tribute from the neighbouring islands, and had long years
vouchsafed to them of peace and plenty? And, finally, after
sending out migratory swarms eastward, and perhaps westward,
how did their island disappear ? Was it submerged slowly ?
Or did it sink suddenly in ruin ? We cannot tell. All is dark
and uncertain. Yet, with the onward march of science, the day

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26

THE LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS.

may perhaps come when its historic actuality will be made plain as
the fact of its geological existence. Whatever the power and
greatness of the old Atlantids, all now is vanished as a dream, lost
and engulfed in a barren wilderness of waters. Festivals, proces-
sions, the meetings in the market-place, and uproar of congregated
thousands, all is silent now. The ocean keeps its secret : summer
and winter, sleet and sunshine, pass ov^er its surface, but no sounder
echo comes to tell of the sleepers below. Yet here, haply, were human
aflfections and friendships, and all the incidents and realities of life.
And when the suddenness of desolation fell upon them, it must
have been with no ordinary pang that these children of the morn-
ing resigned the rich blessings they enjoyed, and descended into
that darkness where as yet "ho Teacher had gone before. Buried
thus in the lava and scoriae of volcanic action, who can tell what
subtle agencies of nature have since been at work ? Who can say
whether the infiltrated fluid, charged with calcareoug or silicious
earth in solution, may not, in the interval preceding the final sub-
mersion, have lapidified these sleepers, have turned them into
stone, like the lossils and reliquijc which form the study of the
curious.':* If so, it may be that when, in the oscillations of the
earth's crust, the Island of Atlantis, covered with its subsequent
deposits, again rises to the surface, some future geologist may lay
bare the secrets of that last convulsion, may gaze with reverence
on the first-born of our race, and again expose to air and sunshine
the reveller with his roac-wrcadi, the hicravch with his stall", and

the mailed monarch with his scoptro and his crown.

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